panoramic photo by Jon Bellona
click for larger view

A few weeks ago, November 19th-22nd, I had an opportunity to work with Wayne Vitale from Gamelan Sekar Jaya in tuning the University of Oregon Gamelan. This was an incredible unique experience and, though there were a few repetitive tasks, really educational in both in regard to the gamelan and to the physics of sound in general. I came out of the weekend with a number of ideas to explore in future compositions.

Anyway, we spent a lot of time doing repairs to the mallets, resonators, and wood of the instruments, and, as you’re probably imagining, we accomplished the “tuning” by carefully applying angle grinders to the bronze keys and pots of the instrument.

Last Saturday was the TaiHei Ensemble Concert, our Pacific-Rim ensemble. I realized the day of the concert, but every single piece on the program had some degree of improvisation to it, though that improvisation came in many different forms.

Anyway, I highly recommend that you give it a listen. I’ve posted the MP3s on the TaiHei Ensemble Site on the media page. It’s a great ensemble, this concert was four performers: shamisen, percussion/trumpet, saxophone/hulusi, and tuba… I don’t know how many other people can claim they played in a quartet for shami, trumpet, sax, and tuba.